538 A.D. - 1798 A.D.

"Daniel 7 reveals the kingdoms that would rule ancient Israel, and the great controversy between God and Satan and how it will end.

Four kingdoms ruled ancient Israel: 

Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece, and Rome. 

Rome was the last kingdom to rule ancient Israel and its western

empire ended in 476 AD, when Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain, deposed the last Roman emperor, Romulus Augustulus.
Also, in the midst of this reality, Jesus Christ the Messiah walked among people and ministered to their needs, died for the sins of human beings, and rose from the dead to return to heaven. 

During His tenure, He said: “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

Another kingdom would arise amidst the ten kingdoms that survived the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and would displace three of those ten kingdoms.
This kingdom would speak pompous words against God, persecute the church members that Jesus left on the earth, and change times and laws (Daniel 7:25). This power would dominate the world for 1,260 years. The Roman Catholic Church is the only world-wide power that meets this description.

The Roman Catholic Church placed the Bible beyond the reach of common people and interposed priests between God and the people, despite the apostolic teaching that there is now only one mediator, Jesus Christ, between God and man. (1 Timothy 2:5). 

These priests instructed the people in doctrines that were not Biblically based. During “the 1260 year rule”, the Roman Catholic Church attempted to replace the church Jesus built on the rock.

Q: How and when did it start?
A: The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD but the Bishop of Rome remained a dominant religious figure. In 538 AD, Emperor Justinian, the ruler of the Byzantine Empire, declared himself to be a theologian and no longer a soldier.

He crossed the barrier of his mandate between what is purely civil obligation and what is religious obligation, similarly to Constantine before him, and entered in competition with the papal function and this role is evidence of Justinian’s ongoing caesaro-papism. 

The quest for unification of the empire by unification of the church, the fever for church-building projects with his wife Theodora, the persecution of enemies of the church and heretics, his disdain with the Sabbath although his second name was Sabbatini, his support for suppressing any eschatological fever in line with the church fathers and Oecumenius (the name under which are transmitted several commentaries in Greek on the New Testament) and yet trying to build the ‘Kingdom of God’ on earth. All this indicates the problem 538 AD was for the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church.

Archaeological and historical original sources of Justinian and contemporaries of popes, biographer of Justinian and a commentator on Revelation (Oecumenius) are very revealing of these times and the shift or transition of what belonged to the Roman Empire handed over since 538 A.D. to the church and the papal function.

The Code of Justinian was a persecuting instrument. Justinian upheld the supremacy of the papacy. 

He permitted, through the Council of Orleans, actions to be done on Sunday that Constantine had prohibited, such as travel, food preparation, and house-cleaning. In Novellae CXLIV Justinian instituted a Seventh-day Sabbath persecution. 

He changed the times and laws ad hoc as his Novellae XLVI and coins of 538 A.D. (XII year) indicate. Private gatherings were persecuted. He had church-manual laws. He studied Systematic Theology on the nature of Christ and wrote homiletical rules for preachers. He gave text critical advice to Jews and condemned their doctrinal deviations.

However, this theological hobby of the ruler of the once mighty

Roman Empire was to be taken over by a more theological competent power that would eventually lead to papal-caesarism, which lasted until 1798, when the Directory, the government of France from 1795 to 1799, deposed Pope Pius VI. 

The prophetic embedding of the 1260 days as “years” prophecies in both Daniel 7 and Revelation 12 definitely started in 538 AD."

Dr. Davis

Book of Daniel: History as Prophecy

"We can now appreciate more fully the meaning of the historical
portion of the book of Daniel. .....it is to give a living picture of the closing events of this world’s history, during the time when “Babylon the Great” is again the chief power in the earth, and...
Revelation 17:18 ...reigns over the kings of the earth.

 

Thus the earlier part of the book of Daniel is truly a
prophecy as well as a history, a history which is to be repeated...

Daniel 2:28 ...in the latter days.

 
And inasmuch as we are now living in the last of the latter
days, in the very generation when this history is to be reenacted, this book in the fullness of its meaning ought to be known in all the earth, and the picture drawn by the Divine artist in the history of Babylon ought to be so clearly in the minds of all the people that its counterpart will be easily recognized. 

This is the true message of the Gospel of the kingdom, which...
Matthew 24:14 ...must be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." W.W. Prescott

Daniel's Prayer in our Time of Trial

I thank thee, and praise thee, 

    O thou God of my fathers, 

        who hast given me wisdom and might.  

Daniel 2:23

 

"Read Daniel's prayer, and see if your experience will stand the test of fire. 

God will richly bless those who humble themselves before Him.... We must not allow ourselves to be chilled to death by those who know not what it means to walk with God.... We must not allow ourselves to enter into contention."

E.G.W.

Bilingualism of the book of Daniel

 "The bilingualism of the book of Daniel is not unique in the Old Testament. 

The same phenomenon is found in the book of Ezra. 

Ezra 4:8–6:18 and 7:12–26 are written in Aramaic, while the rest of the book is written in Hebrew. 

---However, the explanation of the usage of two languages in Ezra is much more obvious and has not generated a bulk of different views. The Aramaic portions of the book of Ezra mainly contain letters and documents that were originally written in Aramaic, and the author decided not to translate them but, rather, presented them in the original language. Since most of those returning from the Babylonian captivity understood the Aramaic language, it was very appropriate to cite letters and documents in the original language.

 

Daniel starts the book in Hebrew but, beginning with Daniel 2:4, he

shifts to Aramaic and continues in it until the end of chapter 7. Then, beginning with chapter 8, he resumes in Hebrew. However, when it comes to the very last word of the book, we discover something interesting. Daniel starts the last word in Hebrew but adds to it an Aramaic ending. It appears as if in the last word, he tries to connect the two languages employed in the book. 

 

 Gleason Archer states, “A careful study of the subject matter yields fairly obvious answers: The Aramaic chapters deal with matters pertaining to the entire citizenry of the Babylonian and the Persian empires, whereas the other six chapters relate to peculiarly Jewish concerns and God’s special plans for the future of his covenant people.”

 

----The very last Hebrew word of the book of Daniel is unique because of its Aramaic plural ending and because of its strong eschatological context. Naturally, it puzzles students of the book. Why does Daniel add to a Hebrew word an Aramaic ending?

 

.....two possibilities. 

First of all, since Daniel used the two languages throughout the book, the combination of the two languages in the very final word would send a signal to the readers that it was one writer who authored both parts of the book. The final word, in a way, underlines the unity of the Hebrew and Aramaic sections of Daniel.

Second, but no less important, the prophet attempts, through the last word, to safeguard the readers from a wrong interpretation of the text. If Daniel would use a normal and expected Hebrew ending to the Hebrew word for “days,” it would significantly alter the meaning. One naturally asks, when will the promised resurrection of Daniel actually occur? At the end of which days? Looking at the context of Daniel 12:13, the reader will quickly realize that the text immediately preceding (v. 12) refers to the blessing given those who will reach the 1,335 days. Here, for “days” Daniel employs a Hebrew word with a Hebrew plural ending.

If, in the very next verse, Daniel used the same Hebrew word with the same Hebrew plural ending that he used in Daniel 12:12, the reader would conclude that the phrase which follows—“at the end of the days” (referring to the 1,335 days)—points to the very end of the 1,335 days. It would mean that the promised resurrection will occur at the end of the 1,335 days. That would seem to support those advocating a futuristic approach to the interpretation of the eschatological prophecies. However, the usage of an Aramaic ending to the Hebrew word for “days” differentiates it from the 1,335 days. It is also significant to note that in verse 13, Daniel adds to the word “days” a definite article, which additionally points to the special “end” of the days and supports a differentiation from the 1,335 days."ArturStele/Ministry

Government Lesson from the Lion's Den

 

"the king commanded and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions."

The king passed the night in fasting and in sleeplessness. But very

early in the morning he hurried to the den of lions and "cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel . . . O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?"

Daniel answered, "O king, live forever. My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths that they have not hurt me: forasmuch as before Him, innocency was found in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt." 

 

And therein the demonstration is made in perfection forever that the person who disregards any law that touches service to God is innocent before God, 

and also does "no hurt" to the king, 

nor to the State, 

nor to society, 

nor to any principle of law or government.

All of which in divine truth demonstrates again that no earthly government can ever have any right or jurisdiction in matters of religion: that is, in the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it."A.T. Jones/Daniel 6:16,21,22

Where was Daniel's Vision?

And in the four and twentieth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great

river, which is Hiddekel... Daniel 10:4

"By the River Hiddekel the Syriac understands the Euphrates; 

the Vulgate, Greek, and Arabic, the Tigris; 

hence Wintle concludes that the prophet had this vision at the place where these rivers unite, as they do not far from the Persian Gulf." Uriah Smith

Obama, Trump, Biden in Context of this Great Controversy (Nebuchadnezzar Case Study)

 "In this scripture it is dearly shown that the power of

Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was ordained of God; nor to Nebuchadnezzar alone, but to his son and his son's son, which is to say that the power of the Babylonian Empire, as an imperial power, was ordained of God. 

Nebuchadnezzar was plainly called by the Lord, "My servant," and the Lord says, "And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon." He further says that whatever "nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish."

***Now let us see whether this power was ordained of God in things pertaining to God. In the third chapter of Daniel we have the record that Nebuchadnezzar made a great image of gold, set it up in the

plain of Dura, and gathered together the princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counselors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, to the dedication of the image; and they stood before the image that had been set up. Then a herald from the king cried aloud:-

"To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up; and whoso falleth not down and worshipeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace."

In obedience to this command, all the people bowed down and

White House Lit Up in Gay Flag by Obama

worshiped before the image, except three Jews,-Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. This disobedience was reported to Nebuchadnezzar, who commanded, them to be brought before him, when he asked them if they had disobeyed his order intentionally. He himself then repeated his command to them.  

Yet these men, knowing all this, made answer to Nebuchadnezzar thus:-

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

Then these men were cast into the fiery furnace, heated seven times

hotter than it was wont to be heated; but suddenly Nebuchadnezzar rose up in haste and astonishment, and said to his counselors, "Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" They answered, "True, O king." But he exclaimed, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." The men were called forth:-

Here there is demonstrated the following facts: 

First, God gave power to the kingdom of Babylon; 

second, he suffered his people to be subjected to that power; 

third, he defended his people by a wonderful miracle from a certain exercise of that power. 

 

Q: Does God contradict or oppose himself?-

A: Far from it. 

Q: What, then, does this show?-

A: It shows conclusively that this was an undue exercise of the power which God had given. By this it is demonstrated that the power of the kingdom of Babylon, although ordained of God, was not ordained unto any such purpose as that for which it was exercised; and that, though ordained of God, it was not ordained to be authority in things pertaining to God, or in things pertaining to men's consciences.

 

 And it was written for the instruction of future ages, and for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come."

A.T. Jones 

 

So for what purpose did Obama serve?

Well, he forced the Christian Right and some Catholics closer

together in opposition with his over reach on Obamacare when he used it to force all insurance to cover the evil of abortion and transgender surgery. 

His people were also supportive in the political arena of forcing Christians to service gay weddings (an event that sanctions the LGBT activity) and service gay pride parades (an event the celebrates the LGBT lifestyle)--both events that no Christian should play any role in at all.

He also took the country to the point of no return of the national debt---so when the balloon pops--that will be the end economically. When that day comes it could usher in a revamped economic system of total govt. control that could lead to controlling your ability to buy or sell. 

 

What would a Trump term serve?

Not really sure yet, other than possibly a place holder waiting for the

Catholic Biden to run and/or the spark that set the radical left to unleash chaos onto America that could feed into the time of trouble. BTW, what caused Biden to SKIP 2016? Remember he toyed twice with jumping in the primaries then to save the party from Hillary and Sanders? What caused him to wait for this time to run against an incumbent rather than an open race?

 

What could a Biden term serve?

We will see, but among MANY possibilities could be Lockdowns, taxes and regulations, such as Green New Deal types, that plunge the economy into depression. 

Also, maybe a Catholic who will give lip service to the Christians in the polls who call for a Holy Day to return to God during calamities while following the Green Carrot Stick of Pope Francis 

 (Laudato Si ’) to set aside a day to reduce our so-called carbon footprint to reach out to non-Christians to co-operate. 

Or maybe during a time of crises he will be succeeded by Harris who will go all PC and appoint the LGBT Buttigieg V.P. and Christians point to that as a part of God's anger with the nation during troublesome times and the opposition sweeps back into power implementing the mark....WHO KNOWS HOW THIS COULD ALL END.....BUT IN THE END THE WORLD WILL FOLLOW THE BEAST POWER --BOTH SIDES...despite the rhetoric of those like Paulson and the FLAW IN HIS/their ESCHATOLOGY.

SIMPLIFYING the 2 Events of Daniel and Mark of the Beast

"The time will come when men
-(first)-will not only forbid Sunday work,
-(second)-but they will try to force men to labor on the Sabbath. And men will be asked to renounce the Sabbath and to subscribe to Sunday observance or forfeit their freedom and their lives.
But the time for this has not yet come, for the truth must be presented more fully before the people as a witness."
SpM 21.2 E.G.W.

FIRST LESSON IN DANIEL: Fiery Furnace event as an image

is set up to for FALSE WORSHIP.
..saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast...
Revelation 13:14

SECOND LESSON IN DANIEL: Lion's Den event as TRUE WORSHIP of True God is curtailed.

The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because
--they have transgressed the laws,
--changed the ordinance,
--broken the everlasting covenant.
 .....and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Isaiah 24:5/Revelation 13:15

Scripture on Daniel

"That the book of Daniel was written by the person whose name it bears, there is no reason to doubt.

Ezekiel, who was contemporary with Daniel, bears testimony,

through the Spirit of prophecy, to his piety and uprightness, ranking him in this respect with Noah and Job: "If I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out My fury upon it in blood, to cut off from it man and beast; though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness." Ezekiel 14: 19, 20.

His wisdom, also, even at that early day, had become proverbial, as appears from the same writer. To the prince of Tyrus he was directed by the Lord to say, "Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee." Ezekiel 28: 3.

But above all, our Lord recognized him as a prophet of God, and bade His disciples understand the predictions given through him for the benefit of His church: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand), then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains." Matthew 24: 15, 16."
Uriah Smith

Daniel & Friends Names

Now among these were of the children of Judah,
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:
Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names;
for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar;
and to Hananiah, of Shadrach;
and to Mishael, of Meshach;
and to Azariah, of Abed-nego.
Daniel 1:6,7

 "This change of names was probably made on account of the signification of the words.
Thus, Daniel signified, in the Hebrew, God is my judge;
Hananiah, gift of the Lord;
Mishael, he that is a strong God;
and Azariah, help of the Lord.

These names each having some reference to the true God, and

signifying some connection with his worship, were changed to names the definition of which bore a like relation to the heathen divinities and worship of the Chaldeans.

Thus Belteshazzar, the name given to Daniel, signified keeper of the hid treasures of Bel;
Shadrach, inspiration of the sun (which the Chaldeans worshiped); Meshach, of the goddess Shaca (under which name Venus was worshiped); and
Abed-nego, servant of the shining fire (which they also worshiped)."
Uriah Smith 

.....on the 4 kingdoms of Daniel

"Two main schools of thought on the four kingdoms of Daniel, are:

1. the traditionalist view, supporting the conflation of Medo-Persia and identifying the last kingdom as the Roman Empire.
2. the Maccabean thesis, a view that supports the separation of the Medes from the Persians and identifies the last kingdom as the Seleucid Empire." WW

And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.

Daniel 7:3

 

"...But today many liberal scholars reject the traditional view, sometimes called the Exilic Thesis, in favor of what may be called the Maccabean Thesis. This view originally asserted that the book was written during the second century B.C. by an unknown writer who chose a sixth-century setting in order to chronicle history as if it were prophecy.

To support their thesis, those who hold the Maccabean view have presented three major lines of evidence.
(1) Supposed historical inaccuracies;

Examples set forth as evidence of historical inaccuracy include the alleged chronology problem in chapters 1 and 2, the reference to Belshazzar as king, the figure of Darius the Mede, and the identification of the "Chaldeans" as a class of wise men. In each of these cases, recent discoveries have not only proved the book of Daniel to be historically correct, but they have shown that the author of the book of Daniel most likely lived during the very period he describes, because he knows details which were otherwise lost to human knowledge for over two thousand years until recently

discovered.
(2) Linguistic factors;

The linguistic factors cited as evidence of a later date of authorship center around the author's use of several Persian and Greek loanwords. The Persian words are actually not a problem, because the words used are Old Persian, and mainly official titles which Daniel would have been familiar with, since he was involved in Persian administration. In 1815, scholars listed 15 Greek loanwords found in the book of Daniel. Subsequent study has shown that all but possibly three of those have an earlier Persian origin. Of those three, only one of them is not documented in the sense used in the book of Daniel before the second century B.C. The existence of these three Greek words (all designating musical instruments) in our manscripts of the book of Daniel doesn't prove a later authorship. In fact, the question should be asked why there are only three Greek words in a book allegedly written so late in the history of the Jews.

(3) Similarities between chapter 11 and events in the second century B.C.

It is claimed that the book was written during the period of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, because it supposedly addresses events of that period specifically. But the most important primary contemporary sources of detailed infomation about the events of 168-164 B.C. are few, limited primarily to 1 and 2 Maccabees and Polybius. And there are a number of significant disagreements within these sources about both the details and the order of events during this period. ...For example, the books of Maccabees do not speak of two campaigns by Antiochus against the Holy City. But Daniel 11 mentions a two-fold contact between the king of the north and God's people. While some similarities can be cited between chapter 11 and Maccabean situation, there are even more dissimilarities. Although Antiochus did interfere with the Jews' religious observances, he never destroyed the temple (See Daniel 8:11), and his military exploits hardly match the great accomplishments attributed to the little horn and the king of the north in Daniel 8:9 and 11:22. The various time periods listed in Daniel for the persecution of God's people and the restoration of the sanctuary services nowhere coincide with the three-year period mentioned in Maccabees for the desecration of the temple. And most scholars agree that Daniel 11:40-45 does not match what is known about the end of Antiochus. Closely examined, Daniel 11 actually contains very little that matches the career of Antiochus IV.

 

It should be clear by now that the Maccabean Thesis creates more

problems than it solves, and that the Exilic Thesis, which takes the book of Daniel as it reads and accepts the book's own explanation of its date, authorship, and setting, is far less problematic. We find no compelling reason to reject the full inspiration of the book of Daniel." FrankHolbrook
 

Lesson BEFORE the Lion's Den

"As related to the kingdom, Daniel's conduct was perfect. He was faithful and true. They could find no ground for complaint against him on that score. They then said they could find no occasion to accuse him, except as concerning the law of his God. So let it be with us. A person can have no better recommendation." Daniel & the Revelation p.97 Uriah Smith

Then said these men,

We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel,

except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

Daniel 6:5